Brentwood city responded online, saying 23 properties were affected on Monday, with an estimated loss of $300,000. They say the $35 million cost to channelize Deer Creek (one solution) is too much for one municipality, and is seeking assistance through Missouri’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The city of Brentwood’s response to Monday’s flooding:

The City of Brentwood has long had concerns about the flooding along Manchester Road within our city boundaries. Deer Creek as you may know crosses multiple jurisdiction. Over the years, the City met with multiple stakeholders (St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District, the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers, residents and businesses who are either impacted as a result of the flooding, or who may have responsibility for storm water management, or oversight of permits when one seeks to dredge the creek) in this area and will continue to do so in an effort to find a solution or solutions to the ongoing flooding issue.

There is no easy solution. Every time we experience a lot of rainfall within a short period of time like we did in December 2015 (26 properties impacted of which 2 are residential), this past spring (11 properties were impacted) and yesterday (23 properties, estimated loss $300,000), our public safety (police and fire and EMS) and public works personnel are on high alert to ensure the safety of our residents and visitors alike.

The $35 million cost to channelize Deer Creek is cost prohibitive for one municipality. Therefore, the City is leveraging funding assistance through Missouri State Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This summer, we submitted two applications for hazard mitigation funding through SEMA. This offers property owners an opportunity for flood buyout and/or utility elevation. A total of four (4) property owners expressed interest. The City of Brentwood has an FMA (Flood Mitigation Assistance) application that has been turned into FEMA but we won’t hear about that and if it’s been awarded until September.

Other efforts undertaken by the City of Brentwood to remove structures that experience repeated flooding include:
1. Previous efforts to dredge Deer Creek near the target areas were halted after funding commitments did not materialize.
2. The City has expanded Norm West Park through the donation and purchase of additional properties that flood.
3. In 2012, the owner of a large apartment complex donated 3 acres to the City and we partnered with MSD on the demolition cost. The parcel is now part of the City’s Norm West Park – open space and ballfields.
4. In 2013, the City retained an engineering firm to investigate the feasibility of reduced flood risk from the target area north of Deer Creek. The options proposed remove some water off of Manchester Road, but nothing of significance without significant property buyout.
5. A total of four (4) additional properties will be raised through agreement with MSD as part of the word DC2/DC3 Sanitary Relief Project.

For the properties that have experienced flooding as a result of the rainfall on Monday, the City will submit another Notice of Interest (NOI) for those properties for the next time FMA (properties need to be repetitive loss and/or severe receptive loss) grant funding opens which is usually around March 2017. We will also submit a NOI for an HMGP (Hazard Mitigation Grant Program) grant which the funding would be available when and if a disaster is declared and the declared areas are usually main focus. SEMA keeps the NOI’s for two years and when the FMA or HMGP opens or is available we look into those databases to check for potential projects.

There is no easy solution. The City continues to work with multiple agencies in a search for solutions.

I would not call these floods occasional, to my knowledge my property has experienced 5 100 year floods in the past 23 years, 3 of them in the last 8 years and two in the last 9 months. My home is 102 years old and was built in a time when most of the deer creek water shed (37 square miles (23,500 acres)) of land was mostly green space, think of how many parking lots, roof tops and sewers where added to the area in the last hundred years. The problem is only growing and becoming more frequent. Talking to people that have been around here longer than I, they say the flooding stated to become in issue in the 1950’s and has been progressively getting worse.

Simple to solve. You do not build structures next to a creek. Otherwise expect the occasional flood and don’t complain about it. And they want to build an apartment complex on the corner of Hanley and Manchester?

Why don’t we get people who commit small crimes and people who can’t pay off traffic violations, and put them to work, by removing limbs and logs from Deer Creek and Black Creek, putting the debris in city trucks and putting them into our city dumpsters!

In Case You Missed It

Many of the readers of 40 South News will be familiar with my blog about the history of Maplewood, Missouri from my previous posts on other sites. Since this is my first blog post for 40 South News I’ve decided to start with the earliest information regarding Maplewood.